


Silent Night

by orphan_account



Category: Princess Tutu
Genre: Christmas, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 21:19:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2826464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ahiru and Fakir hope for a Christmas miracle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Silent Night

Ahiru hopped out of the little basket that served as her bed, and at first cringed at the small noises made by both her feet and by the blanket sliding onto the floor. Then she remembered: this time, she _did_ want to wake the other occupant of the room. She didn’t bother tiptoeing the short distance to the bed, therefore, and peered up for a second before flapping her wings enough to carry her up onto the mattress. She could just barely see Fakir’s face in the dark, but she could hear his deep, even breathing and knew he still slumbered. She hesitated, and then gently nudged his face with the top of her head. “Quack…”

“Mnnnn…” Fakir stirred, and blinked blearily in the darkness. Ahiru nudged him again and let out another soft quack, and he raised a hand to rub at his eyes. “Ahiru? Is something wrong?” She shook her head, and he could faintly make out the motion in the shadows. “Then… why the hell are you waking me up at…” He looked over at his bedroom clock. “A quarter to midnight? Ahiru, what the –”

“Quack!” She didn’t give him a chance to continue before turning and hopping off his bed. She knew he was cranky now from being woken up like this, and she didn’t blame him, but this was _important_. She couldn’t just leave him out of this, and she hoped he understood. “Quack!” She waddled over towards his door and looked back at him, glad that she couldn’t see his expression that well. “Quack?”

“What are you… ugh.” Fakir sighed, and reluctantly tossed the covers off, searching almost blindly with his feet for his slippers. He didn’t know what had gotten into her, but he knew he’d have no peace until he went along with it. And as annoyed as he was, he knew it had to be something important, because it wasn’t like her to rouse him in the middle of the night for trivial things. “Fine… but this better not be a waste of time.”

“Quaaack!” She cringed again as soon as the irritated quack was out, and briefly brought her wings up to cover her beak. Ahiru didn’t see Fakir struggle not to laugh despite himself, only saw him put his slippers on and stand up to follow her. “Quaaack…” She made a softer noise, and led him out of his room and down the hall once he’d opened the door.

She somehow made it to the ground floor without falling on the stairs, and led Fakir to the cozy room where he and Charon had set up and decorated the Christmas tree much earlier in the day. The presents they’d opened still sat under it, but all the discarded wrapping paper and ribbons and had been thrown in the bins. Well, almost – as her eyes adjusted, she saw a stray scrap of shiny paper, and missed a tag that had fallen. Her tiny foot slid on it, and she wound up falling onto her rear end.

“Careful, idiot.” Fakir picked her up and set her atop a nearby box. “That’s what happens when you walk around in the dark.”

“Quaaaack…” She watched him move to the tree, where he lit a couple of candles, enough to see by in the room while still keeping them mostly shrouded in darkness.

“There.” Fakir set the matches aside and turned back to Ahiru. “Now, what’s this all about? I know you can’t be wanting to wait for the Christmas Man.”

“Quack.” She shook her head, and pointed with her wing at the fireplace. “Quack…”

“What? You want me to light a…” Fakir’s voice trailed off as he saw what she was _really_ gesturing at: a certain stocking hung on the mantel, with a name stitched into it of a person they hadn’t seen in several months. “Oh.” A lump formed in his throat, and it took him a moment to be able to speak again. “You want to see if she shows up for it?”

“Quack!” Ahiru nodded.

“So that’s what you woke me up for.” Ahiru nodded, and all the annoyance he’d previously felt melted out of him. “I get it. I… you did the right thing.” He sat down on the floor beside her, facing the fireplace with his back to the tree, and took her into his arms. “It’s because of those stories I read you, isn’t it?” He stroked the feathers on her head, his voice thoughtful. “About this time of year, and this time of night, and the magic said to be in them?”

“Quack…” Ahiru nodded, and leaned closer to Fakir. He understood, and he was glad she’d woken him – that was good. It would’ve been wrong to wait alone here for Uzura, she couldn’t do that to him. Better to irritate him a little at first than risk having him miss out on the miracle she hoped would occur.

“Well, there’s not much time till midnight, so we don’t have long to wait.” Fakir let out a yawn, even though by now he felt fully awake. “Sorry that I… I didn’t realize…”

“Quack!” Ahiru shook her head again. “Quack, quack…”

“Are you trying to say that it’s okay, and I couldn’t have?” Fakir laughed softly as Ahiru quacked again in confirmation. “I suppose, but I should’ve realized you wouldn’t do that over nothing. You’re too nice sometimes.”

“Quaaack…” She felt a blush growing, and hid her face against him to hide it.

They sat in silence after that, waiting for the clock on the mantel to tick through the last few minutes till midnight. It seemed to take an eternity, but at last it began to chime the new hour, a half-second behind the distant tolling of bells. They held their breath, half-expecting – they didn’t know what, perhaps a shimmer of the air, or magical sparkles, or just the little puppet girl they loved and missed popping suddenly into the room, _something_ … but all that happened was that the clocks announced the hour, the candles on the tree flickered, and the room stayed otherwise silent.

Fakir spoke first, in the quiet left behind after the sound of the clocks faded away. “Well… maybe next year. And at least the Mouse King didn’t show up instead, right?”

Tears instantly welled up in Ahiru’s eyes at the sound of his voice. Fakir almost never made jokes, yet… here he was, making one now, to try and comfort _her_. To make _her_ feel better. He must be hurting even more than she was, and she knew it – he’d been closer to Uzura than she’d been, after all, he’d spent more time with her and grown so fond of her in a short time, obviously seeing her as a younger sister – but he was putting aside his pain to try and look after her feelings instead. How could he say _she_ was too nice and then do this? Her heart ached for him. “Quaa…”

The noise died before it all made it out of her beak, for in the candlelight she could see tears shimmering in his eyes. Fakir shook his head as he saw her expression, and tried to smile. “Idiot. It’s fine… I… don’t worry about me, I’m…”

It was his turn to trail off, for before he could finish Ahiru stretched her small body upwards and slipped her wings around his neck, embracing him as she’d embraced Rue during their goodbyes. More than ever she found herself wishing she had a human body again, because in moments like these she needed to be able to _properly_ embrace him, to wipe his tears away and whisper comforting things to him. This seemed like such a poor substitute for what she could’ve done as a human girl. But it was all she had, and it would have to do.

Fakir went very still for a second, and then returned the hug, and she felt his shoulders shake as he let himself cry quietly against her feathers. She let her own tears out at that, crying more for him than anything else, and for a few minutes they just remained that way. It occurred to him to apologize for her having to see and deal with this, but he pushed the thought away as soon as it arrived. He knew very well what she’d say to that, and could hear as though from a great distance her voice as a human speaking the words: that it was okay, that his feelings were his own and should be expressed freely and let out, that it was important to cry and it didn’t make him weaker. All sorts of things along those lines. And he knew she was right, so he stayed quiet.

Once their tears dried up, Fakir took a deep breath and moved Ahiru back a little, to look at her face in the dim light. “We should go back to bed now. There’s… no point staying down here any longer.”

“Quaaaack…” She almost felt like crying again at the quiet defeat in his voice, but she held back and simply nodded. “Quack.”

He arranged her carefully in one arm before standing up, and doused the candles before leaving the room. He paused at the doorway for one last glance back, but when only empty darkness greeted his eyes sighed and kept going. Ahiru didn’t miss this, even as sleepy as she now felt due to the late hour and the burst of crying, and a new lump arose in her throat. _Please_ , she wanted to ask someone. _Please, reward his hope someday. He deserves it._

Fakir carried her back upstairs to his room, but didn’t set Ahiru back in her basket. Instead, he climbed into his own bed, and tucked the covers around both of them after shifting her again to carefully hold her against himself. Ahiru made a barely audible noise, more of a chirp than a quack, and snuggled herself closer, resting her head where she could listen to his heartbeat as she drifted away. He stroked the top of her head again, and then closed his eyes.

They might never see their departed friends again, and they both knew it. But they also knew that as long as they had each other, they’d be all right in the end.


End file.
